Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

foo fighter-
So what exactly are you going to use a Mac for? I remember you do some web design (dreamweaver and photoshop too I assume). There are some people out there that get away with using an iMac, but most likely you'll want a bit more power/expandability. The Cube is a little bit better, since you can choose whatever monitor you want and it has a G4 processor in it. The largest drawback there is the lack of internal expansion. So my tentative recommendation (until I know exactly what you are planning on doing with your Mac) is to get a G4 tower. It starts at $1600, which is $200 less than the Cube, and you can add a whole bunch of internal drives to it. Plus there are 3 PCI slots and 4 RAM slots.

I just got a low end G4 tower a couple weeks ago from outpost.com. I added an IBM deskstar 45 GB IDE hard drive (very fast drive), a SCSI card for my old scanner, 256 MB more RAM and a Mitsubishi 19" NF monitor. I use it for 3-D modeling, editing and some Photoshop. So that was the route I took and I am very happy with my decision. Depending on what you need, you may want to do something similar.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

quote:

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Originally posted by lennonhead
foo fighter-
So what exactly are you going to use a Mac for? [/i]

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My blog: Pocketfactory

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Foo:

Well, it's about time!

The entry level Towers are good machines, especially for web apps, though, if you can swing it, the dual-processors are certainly appealing.

I have two identical G4 350 machines (one work, one home). I have 192 MB of RAM at home, which seems to be plenty. I can actually run Windows faster on my G4 than I can on my Compaq laptop. I'm spoiled at work with 400+ MB RAM, which, honestly, is more than I need.

As for hard-drives, I really recommend getting a FireWire External one when the need arrises. They're fast and extremely portable. (looking to get one just to store my MP3s).

I think you're buying at a good time...they finally got rid of the round mouse, added a better keyboard, and the speeds are back up to where they should be.

Have fun with it!

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

Yeah, it's definitely sweet! Once you stop starring at the design and open and close the side panel a few hundred times, you finally turn it on It is extremely fast at everything and even faster when using alti-vec apps. The new optical mouse is really cool too!

If you can easily afford it, benefit from a small number of apps that are MP aware or plan on running two processor intensive apps at the same time (once OS X is released), then go for a MP system. Otherwise stick with the $1600 model and upgrade it. The IBM HD I bought makes all the difference in the world! The stock 5400 RPM drive that comes with the G4's doesn't come close to the speed of the 7200 RPM IBM drive.

If you are looking for RAM a good place to go is www.macseek.com . They list a bunch of different online stores and compare the prices. At the time I bought RAM www.memorytogo.com had the best price on 256 MB chips and I saved about $50, however, it changes from day to day.

Apple computers are very stylish, I just wish I could afford a portable too. Well, it's more the fact that I don't need a laptop and it would just be a very expensive game system. The new iBooks that just came out have great specs, especially the special edition model. Portability is where my Visor comes into play and I certainly can't complain about that!